FREE MEMORY

"It takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory."- - - Paulo Coelho

People are often filled with regrets. Regrets are the lingering pain from experience. A bad break-up can haunt a person for years. The memories and "what I did wrong" without answers can led to life long fears and depression.  It takes a conscious effort to erase the past in order to move on into the future.

Some LOST characters were paralyzed by their pasts.  Many were haunted by abandonment issues. Many were haunted by "daddy" or parent issues. Many believed they were abused. Many believed that they were chosen by fate to have lousy lives. Many believed they were be punished for no apparent reason.

Many characters wanted to escape their present circumstances. Many dreamed of grand adventures. Many believed that they had godlike skills. Many thought they could turn back the clock and change their past.

But in the end, none of them could change their pasts. The only thing they could do was to wake up and acknowledge their past life . . .  and accept it. Accept the consequences of their own actions. Release their regrets and anger against others. To purge themselves of guilt. Free themselves of their own self-pity.

Otherwise, they will continue to rot from the inside to become soul less loners who would contribute nothing to society. They would be crippled by their own memories of a past that was re-written to make them more and more the victim. Victimization can lead to withdrawal and paranoia. It can lead to anti-social behavior. It can lead to a life of perpetual misery.

That is why so many people rely on therapists to help them through their issues. They need to talk their way out of their plight. They need someone to throw them a life preserver. They need someone who believes in them.

LOST's island life was not the true life preserver for the main characters. It was more an amplifier of their fears, anxieties, emotional darkness and loss of life. The island experiences did not set the characters "free" of their memories. No, it reinforced them in a negative way. In some people, like Ben, it emboldened them to act in a more negative manner. Their internal monster's thoughts became a raging real life monster. That is not personal growth but personal destruction because they could not free themselves of the negative memories of their past.

You need to realize that the past is hurting you in the present in order to stop painful memories from stopping you from becoming a better person. We don't think any of the main characters got past their past when they reunited in the church. It seemed like an awkward  25th year high school reunion of long lost strangers than a pivotal change in their lives.

NEW FALSE MEMORIES

In the Boston Globe recently, Linda Rodriguez McRobbie tells the story of a British man named Alpha Kabeja, who came out of a coma with clear recollection of memories of things that had never happened.

Kabeja, McRobbie writes, was biking, when he was hit by a van with enough force to knock his brain out of place inside his skull. When he came out of a medically induced coma three weeks later,
McRobbie writes, "doctors told his family he might not remember anything from before the accident, or remember them or who he was, that he might have amnesia." But Kabeja woke up full of memories.

The only problem: None of those things were true!

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Kabeja clung to his new memories, and his family and friends played along. But there was no pregnancy. There was no private plane. There was no job interview, which Kabeja realized only after he called MI6 and learned their offices had been closed the day of the accident.

But the "memories" weren't totally fantastical — related things had been happening in Kabeja's life before the accident, leading him to believe that his subconscious had twisted real pieces of information into new forms:

In that sense, McRobbie argues, Kabeja's brain was simply going a step further than ours do, every day, when we recall a piece of the past. No autobiographical memory is a fixed, literal record of what really happened; memories are malleable, morphing each time we call them forth, to accommodate new information stored elsewhere in the brain. Sometimes, this means small tweaks; other times, it means we're left with recollections that others might see as outright fabrications. Even people with extraordinary capacities for recall, research has shown, are prone to inadvertently making things up.

Kabeja's false memories then, may have been an attempt to make sense of the long gap when he was unconscious in the hospital — without any real autobiographical memories of that stretch of time, his brain may have simply pulled other memories from elsewhere to fill in the lost weeks. "When you wake up, your brain is trying to reconnect pieces because your brain is trying to recover that sense of you, that sense of memory, that sense of history," Julia Shaw, a memory researcher at London South Bank University, told the Globe. "And in that process of recovery and essentially healing, you can make connections in ways that are fantastical and impossible" — but not so far removed from memory as we might like to think.

If our brain has its own operating program where it writes, stores and re-writes information like a computer hard drive, then any interruption of this normal brain function could lead to dramatic "new false memories" being created to explain one's current situation.

Memories (or in LOST, at times, the loss of the collective memory of the characters) was an ebb and flow in the story lines. Where the flashbacks and backstories really true? Or were they the reconstruction of different bits of information and fantasy caused by brain injuries to the surviving passengers of the plane crash?

MEMORY OBSERVATION

Last month, William Shatner was being interviewed on a Chicago radio station. He was on to promote his new book, Leonard, a retrospective of his life with Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy.

He wrote the book as a tribute to his late friend. But in the process, he had an interesting observation on life.

He said that people share experiences with friends. And in order to remember them, re-live them, they have to be together - - - "do you remember the time we did such and such?" Then laugh about it.

He said those conversations keep those memories alive.

But once someone dies, a person loses that connection to the other person. Those strong memories begin to fade because the deceased friend is no longer around to share them with you.

That was why Shatner wrote the book. It keeps his memories of Nimoy alive in a tangible form.

This is a deep observation that makes logical sense.

Our memories fade of lost loved ones because we don't see them anymore. A daily, weekly, monthly or annual face-to-face helps reinforce past memories because you re-connect with the person, their face, their voice, their mannerisms, their personality, and humor. The stronger the bonds between two people, the clearer the memories will be retained.

So when we lose people, at some point we will lose the memories of those departed souls.

That is a sad dilemma. You want to remember. You need to remember.

We have things to help us remember. Family photograph albums. Pictures speak a thousand words. Grave stones. We visit the departed to pay our respects and to remember their life. Their children and siblings. They are the living images of their departed family members.

If you are a film star, friends can find  the permanent footage of your acting career. It helps ease the problem of losing touch.

But those are mere substitutes for the real thing. The real experiences in life hold more meaning than just mere memories. But at a certain point, memories are the only things left to hold on to.

In LOST, there was the odd notion that the main characters "forgot" their island past while "living" in the sideways world. Perhaps, they lost their memories because people died and they faded from conscious memory.

WONDER TO GO

In 1977, I went to a large suburban theater to watch the first Star Wars movie. I do not recall what actually motivated me to see the movie, except that that was what kids did on Saturday afternoons.

The old theater had a monster screen and new Dolby sound. It could fit three current theaters into it. It was the last arc of the grand movie palace experience, where the characters and action on the huge screen was larger than life.

I remember it was a very good action-adventure movie. So much so, that I made a point of seeing the next two sequels.  But then after that, I had no interest in George Lucas' prequels. It came mostly from negative reviews and the lack of the original characters involved in the movies.

And that is a point of franchise stories: people get personally invested in the characters that they are drawn to . . . in such a fashion to follow their stories to the bitter end.

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I can guess a couple of major plot twists because I know that Hollywood rarely has a totally original story idea. I have been spoiler free in internet surfing so if I make the commitment to elbow through the mobs this holiday season to see the picture, I will get the full effect of re-boot.

But I am thrilled with JJ Abrams at the helm. As a loyal, old school Roddenberry Star Trek fan, I was disappointed with his franchise reboot to the point of not watching any more of his "alternative" universal thought. It seems the younger generation does not care about alternative canon story lines since the major comic book makers seem to re-boot their franchise characters every couple of years, to the point of total confusion of character roles and motivations. Example, is Batman good or bad?

So I wonder if the new Star Wars movie will hold to Lucas' vision, or will it be a tale of Hollywood Disneyification profiteering, or a mixed bag of hope dreams bruised by formula pole tent movie making.

Great science fiction charges one's imagination. Poor sci-fi clouds the mind.

This new Star Wars movie is supposed to break all box office records. But industry insiders think it will be a commercial flop if it does not make $1.5 billion at the box office. Reports indicate that Disney has strong armed many theater chains to pay higher ticket gate percentages in order to show the film. To be super successful, Disney hopes for multiple viewings by fans and a huge rush of merchandise purchases.

But let's hope the old characters can gracefully hand over the story to the new, younger Jedi characters. Because in the end, it is still the story that counts the most.

DEJA VU AGAIN

We don't know exactly because it’s difficult to study—you can’t induce déjà vu in most people. 

But scientists have theories. It may be a memory error: An experience triggers a memory, but the brain can’t retrieve it. When that happens, your brain fails to distinguish the past from the present, leaving you with an odd feeling of familiarity. 

Another theory holds that two parts of the brain perceive an experience at the same time. If information arrives slightly faster to one part, a person can feel like they’re having the same experience twice. 

However, a group of scientists from the U.K., France, and Canada think another cause could be anxiety. They recently studied the bizarre case of a 23-year-old man with chronic déjà vu and found in one instance that the more distressed he became by the endless loop of déjà vu experiences, the worse they got. But you’ve probably heard that before.

We play mind games all the time: puzzles, board games, mental math tables, etc.

But most people do not realize that their own mind plays games on them. We may be aware of the mind game consciously when we hear a noise in the dark and the mind flashes to an intruder, or a banging shutter. But the mind can also play subconscious tricks on you.

Some psychologists believe that the subconscious mind tricks as a defensive or coping mechanism. For example, past hurtful experiences may be housed in a section of the brain that is triggered under similar circumstances. When a shy person sees a person that is attractive, his subconscious mind triggers a hurtful memory of rejection so the shy person never attempts to say hello to the attractive lady. This sets off another reaction in the conscious mind of guilt, remorse, loneliness and shame. But a person usually can cope, in reality hide, with their internal demons than a public display of rejection that puts a cloud of group judgment on themselves.

Deja vu could also be the mental process in which to solve problems. In third grade, you did math tables. As an adult, you are trying to split a $36 bar tab three ways. You access that math table in an instant to figure out the share sums. You may not mentally flash to the third grade chalkboard, but the subconscious mind does that for you.

The whole concept of LOST's flash backs and flash forwards could have been incorporated into mental experiments by scientists trying to figure out the brain functions that trigger deja vu memory recall.

LOSING MEMORIES

This is a story right out of science fiction.

The BBC reported that a man who went to the dentist for a root canal left with his memories locked in on 1:40 p.m. on 14 March 2005 – right in the middle of a dentist appointment.

A member of the British Armed Forces, he had returned to his post in Germany the night before after attending his grandfather’s funeral. He had gym in the morning, where he played volleyball for 45 minutes. He then entered his office to clear a backlog of emails, before heading to the dentist’s for root-canal surgery.

“I remember getting into the chair and the dentist inserting the local anesthetic,” he said. After that? A complete blank. It is like any new memories were written in invisible ink that slowly disappears from his mind after 90 minutes.

Today, he only knows that there is a problem because he and his wife have written detailed notes on his smartphone, in a file labelled “First thing – read this."

Even the events leading up to his amnesia are highly puzzling. The dentist thought it was a reaction to the anesthetic or a brain blood vessel had burst. But other medical evaluations could not confirm a cause.

The patient could work out how to solve a complex maze, however, he had completely forgotten the skill three days later. “It was like a déjà vu replica of the same errors – he took the same time to relearn the task once more,” says his doctor.

One possibility is that this kind amnesia is a “psychogenic illness." Some patients report memory loss after a traumatic event – but that tends to be a coping mechanism to avoid thinking about painful past events; it doesn’t normally affect your ability to remember the present. However, this patient had suffered no trauma, and according detailed psychiatric assessments, he is otherwise emotionally healthy. 

The answer may be hiding in the thicket of tiny neural connections we call “synapses”. Once we have experienced an event, the memories are slowly cemented in the long term by altering these richly woven networks. That process of “consolidation” involves the production of new proteins to rebuild the synapses in their new shape; without it, the memory remains fragile and is easily eroded with time. Block that protein synthesis in rats, and they soon forget anything they have just learnt. 

Crucially, 90 minutes would be about the right time for this consolidation to take place – just as he starts to forget the details of the event. It is like the protein production just stops so memories cannot be locked in place.

This story is relayed to LOST fans for the simple reason as a possible explanation of the untold torment of what "awakening" meant to the main characters. They had to "awake" in order to move on in life. But why in the sideways world they could not remember the island past has always been a confusing bit of mythology. Instead of not allowing the memories to set in the synapses, the LOST characters' memories were "masked" by something until a traumatic or emotional event triggered the release of that mask. This falls into the category of circumstantial evidence to the premise that LOST's foundation story line was about mind control and illusion over reality.

MEMORY WIPES

One body of LOST theory is that the show's premise resides solely in the mind(s) of a character(s).

It is a tempting premise because it discounts any factual, scientific and memory errors in the actual story lines.

A few key clues in these theories were the fact that the Others (and Dharma) brain washing facility was known as Room 23. We got two references of this room. First, Walt was taken prisoner there and subjected to the high intensity film images. It seemed the sheriff used it as a punishment tool, for which Walt respected and therefore behaved himself. Second, we got an intense look at it when Ben put Karl in the room. We got the aspect of cult programming in that scene with early reference to "Jacob loves you."

23 was also the Number for Jack, which most believe was the central character of the story. Tying the two elements together, Jack was also subjected to mind control games at Hydra, and possibly at the Barracks (or Room 23 facilities) when he integrated himself in a game a football with Mr. Friendly.

The idea that LOST was a nightmare of Jack's subconscious has some merit. Because in the End of the series, Jack got the one thing that he wanted: a chance to see his father again. And Jack's mind rewarded his imaginary friends with happiness and a sense of belonging (especially with the couples).
But the one other big clue is that Aaron, who was born on the island, was also born later in the End. That can't physically happen. So it must be mental.

Jack's mind could have forgot about certain memories in the course of concluding his dream series.

And science backs up the notion that our brains "over write" memories when recalling other ones.

Forgetting certain memories while remembering others may be a normal part of brain function, new research shows. In short, the very act of remembering may cause people to forget other memories that are overridden in the retrieval process, according to the study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Researchers from the University of Birmingham and the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences unit in Cambridge, England, discovered that intentional memory recall isn’t as simple as mentally reawakening a memory. In fact, the act of remembering can actually trigger the brain to forget other competing experiences that interfere with memory retrieval.

“Though there has been an emerging belief within the academic field that the brain has this inhibitory mechanism, I think a lot of people are surprised to hear that recalling memories has this darker side of making us forget others by actually suppressing them,” study co-leader Maria Wimber, PhD, said.

While there are other studies on memory interference, researchers say this is the first to isolate the adaptive forgetting mechanism in the brain. It’s this mechanism by which remembering dynamically alters the aspects of our past that remain accessible. 

Researchers used MRI scans to monitor patterns of brain activity in study participants while they were asked to recall certain memories based on images they had been shown earlier. Over the course of several retrievals, participants were asked to recall a specific memory, which became more vivid with each trial. The results showed that competing memories were retrieved with more difficulty with each trial carried out.

The findings are not limited to specific memory types — semantic memory, episodic memory, and recently acquired short-term memories are all impacted. In fact, though people differ genetically, researchers say that it is thought that all brains are capable of inducing varying degrees of this forgetting mechanism.

There is a bright side to the study. “[Forgetting] can be incredibly useful when trying to overcome a negative memory from our past. So there are opportunities for this to be applied in areas to really help people,” Wimber says.

TRANSFORMATION

Transformation is a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance:  such as:
• a metamorphosis during the life cycle of an animal.
• Physics the induced or spontaneous change of one element into another by a nuclear process.
• Mathematics & Logic a process by which one figure, expression, or function is converted into another that is equivalent in some important respect but is differently expressed or represented.
• Linguistics a process by which an element in the underlying deep structure of a sentence is converted to an element in the surface structure.
• Biology the genetic alteration of a cell by introduction of extraneous DNA, esp. by a plasmid.
• Biology the heritable modification of a cell from its normal state to a malignant state.


Many consider LOST a trans formative series.


It created new format (back back and flash forward) of editing stories together. It revived a large core cast of main characters in a drama series (which was usually reserved to mini-series). It was one of the rare series that had both critics and viewers fanatical show worshippers. It was one of the first series to have a large, devote internet fan community dissecting the show in near real time.

The major transformations in the series may have been large, but its meanings light.

For example, the island's big transformation was it disappearance after the freighter explosion. How can an island just vanish? This was after the set-up by Daniel Faraday that his experiments showed that the island was actually in motion, moving away faster from the freighter than the rocket.  Since we know that islands are stationary objects anchored miles below on the ocean floor, it is not physically possible to make one disappear or move. The only other explanation would be that the island was not an island but a spacecraft or floating object. Such an explanation would put a different spin on what the show was really about. Since we don't have a fleet of floating islands on Earth, was it alien technology. Was the manipulation of time (time travel arc) and space (the island vanishing) the real key?

In many religions, a person on Earth will be transformed upon death into a secondary being. There are a few theorists who now believe that ancient cultures aligned their pyramid observatories to the heavens in order to possibly open star gates to the center of the Milky Way, believed to be the origin place of everything. If the human body is merely a bio-chemical machine operated by an unknown spirit, upon the end of the useful life of the machine, the spirit would be released into his natural form (energy?) Such a release (or perhaps "awakening" in the jargon of the series) is what the final transformation is the creator's vision of ourselves. We go on as ourselves in the after life. The only change we take with us is our memories.

WAKING UP DEAD

"He woke, and remembered dying." - Ken MacLeod, The Stone Canal.

That opening line has been considered one of the great starts to science fiction novel.

I have not read it, but the premise is an excellent leaping off point to a story.

In the case of LOST, the seminal Season One scene is Jack opening his eyes in the bamboo grove.
Some would now say, he woke up and did not remember dying in the plane crash.

Because the stated mechanism to "resolve" the series story lines was to "awaken" in the sideways world and "remember" you were dead, it could be logically concluded that Jack was dead on the island but he did not realize it.

Adding the Egyptian mythology sewn into the fabric of the show, that makes sense. Jack's soul ("the ba") would have passed to another dimension (the sideways) while his body and mind ("the ka")would have to journey through the underworld (the island) in order to be judged worthy of "reuniting" with his soul.

This simple premise makes the most sense in dealing with the polarizing, negative debates on what really happened in the series.

It also validates two different theories and beliefs.

The characters were "alive" on the island. Yes, they were alive on the island because they did not know they were dead. What happened on the island did happen to Jack's "ka," but only to part of his spiritual being in physical form. For all intensive purposes, Jack was living in a physical form.

The other part of the character's mortal being, the ba, were transported to what we would consider an afterlife realm, a forehell or purgatory, in which the souls are also "unaware" that they have lost connection with their physical, mortal, human body. These souls are continuing their former "lives" on memories in a spiritual form. The characters were in an illusion of physical beings; the reality was shown when Christian opened the church doors to show the reality of their realm was only white light.

The spiritual circuit can only re-connect when the character's island ka realizes that it is dead at the same time the character's ba realizes that it is also dead. Jack's moment of enlightenment happened at Christian's coffin, and his father replied that everyone has to die sometime.

TRANSPLANTS

Medical science makes great leaps year after year.

One of the greatest successes has been in the area of organ transplants.

From a science fiction standpoint, would it be a great leap to have "mental" transplants.

The idea of reconditioning a person's brain function has been around for centuries. Ancient people bored holes into skulls to let out "evil spirits" who may have been causing seizures or dizziness. Electroshock treatments were used to try to alter the pathological condition of criminals in a means of rehabilitating them.

As a different explanation to the "smart drugs" post, there may be a day in the future where science will allow people to transfer, transpose or overwrite a person's brain and memories and implant new ones.

Brain washing has been used in the spy game. Emotional abuse has been seen to alter people's character and behavior (mostly for the worse). But those techniques and trauma is used to suppress and repress a personality and memories.  If one transplants an entire new persona, with "fake" memories that seem real, does a person believe in his or her new self?

Probably to absolutely.

Reformatting a hard drive is the closest analogy to this theory.

By altering the character's past, one can easily manipulate and control their future.

How many LOST characters could have been brain transplant recipients?  All of them.

As a few viewers remarked during the original run, many characters flashbacks did not line up exactly with the personality matrix of the island world, and clearly not with the sideways world.

Why would someone want to take a character and make a "new" Jack, a "new" Kate, a "new" Locke, etc.?  Because he could. And for some reason, it appears the likely source of that reprogramming is Jacob, who by his "touch" altered the lives of all his candidates and people brought to his island laboratory. Recall, Jacob and MIB's conversations about the humans coming to the island was couched in socio-experimental terms, that in the end no matter who came to the island, they would become corrupted and die. LOST could be seen as a rogue human experiment by attempting to alter a person's brain memories in order to see if the transplant could truly change the person's actions.

MEMORY GARDEN

There is a common tread throughout the vast history of human cultures: burial customs.

Despite different beliefs, the common thread is that humans hope that their life will continue on after their Earthly demise.

In modern times, people are buried in cemeteries that contain neatly mowed grass, flowers and trees. It is a garden setting. Relatives and friends can return to recall fond memories of the departed in these memory gardens.

If we take this concept and apply it to the other side of the equation, LOST's island could also be considered a memory garden for the departed souls.

Not to label it heaven, purgatory or hell, but just a place where memories are revisited and replayed in order to release any final regrets before a second life begins.

It is a logical to tie the island to the sideways world if in fact both exist on the same level of existence. They can co-exist since time does not exist in the after life, but that realm is eternal.

As a memory garden, the island serves to spotlight the characters first and foremost, which is what the writers claimed was their purpose to have a character driven show.

This concept does negate traditional story telling because the setting is not real, but surreal. The events do not have true consequences. It seems when a soul has worked his or her memories clear and accepted their fate, they can move on without strings attached to their next life.

FEAR

"There is nothing to Fear but Fear itself." --FDR

That Roosevelt quote was from a time of war. We were told by secondary characters that the Island, and therefore everyone attached to it, was also in the midst of a war.

The conflict was murky.

First, it was the survivors against the inhabitants, the Others.

Second, it was the survivors against their fellow survivors.

Third, it was Widmore against the Others.

Fourth, it was everyone against everyone else.

Fifth, it was Jacob against his brother.

Finally, it was Jack and Kate against Flocke.

If you are in the school of thought that LOST was merely a character study of individuals, then the show could be considered as thesis on how they coped with their personal fears.

Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat; a mixed feeling of dread and reverence; a feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something or the safety and well-being of someone; or  the likelihood of something unwelcome happening.

What were the main characters biggest fears?

Jack's biggest fear was failure. He always had the drive to "fix" people, even though people who could not be cured by his medical skills. Part of this fear was based upon his relationship with his father; he feared that his father would not acknowledge him as an equal.

Kate's biggest fear was responsibility. She always ran away from her mistakes. She always tried to avoid the consequences of her actions. It may stem from the fact that she does not believe in commitment because she came from a broken home.

Locke's biggest fear was acceptance. His loneliness was compounded by the fact he had a crazy mother and he was shuffled from foster home to foster home. He never fit into the social situations. He wanted to be someone else in order to belong to a group, but throughout his life people rejected him.

Claire's biggest fear was motherhood. She was a rebellious child who did not get along with her family. She wanted bigger things for herself. But when she got pregnant and her boyfriend ditched her, she could not handle raising a child on her own. When she gave the baby up for adoption, she was riddled with guilt.

Sawyer's biggest fear was acceptance. His entire life was spent tracking down his parent's killer, which turned him into a person that he himself could not like or stand. He took it upon himself never to get close to anyone so he would be an anti-conformist. He thought that if he was accepted by other people his goal in life, revenge, would be thwarted.

Hurley's biggest fear was rejection. He had a difficult time dealing with people on a personal level. It was very difficult for him to ask women out on dates. It may be basis on the fact that his father left him as a child. As a result of this void, he consumed food instead of seeking love.

Jin's biggest fear was poverty. He was the son of a poor fisherman. He thought the only path to happiness would be wealth. When he lucked out at met a rich heiress in Sun, he thought that his life would be exactly what he wanted it to be: easy and rewarding. But Sun's father did not respect him. Jin turned into a criminal enforcer making him a poorer man than he ever was before his marriage.

Sayid's biggest fear was accountability. He knew what he did in his past like torture was morally wrong. He was brought up in strict religious beliefs, but his actions were constantly at odds with those beliefs. When he had to make a decision, he continually fell back on his military behavior over a moral choice. He chose to work for the U.S. military in Iraq to avoid the accountability for his treason. He chose to work for the CIA to betray his friend in Australia instead of being accountable for his own past crimes. He chose to become to a secret assassin for Ben in order to be remain above authority. He knew he had turned into a monster but he did nothing to change himself.

The character study question would be whether these characters ever overcame their fears to find eternal happiness. Did Jack overcome his fear of failure to lead the plane survivors to rescue? Based upon the body count and only a handful of people to actually depart the island, no. From a personal level, did Jack's death after fighting Flocke a success? No, not really because living would have been preferable end than dying.

Did Kate get responsible in the sideways church by allegedly committing herself to Jack? We don't know because we saw that relationship start and blow apart in the O6 arc.  Did Claire overcome her fear of motherhood and take care of Aaron? We don't know that, probably not, since she had to "re-birth" Aaron after death in order to smile. Did Sawyer find acceptance by other people for who he truly was? Perhaps, with Juliet in the time skip and the reunion with her in the hospital. Did Hurley find love in the end? With Libby, there was that probability even though their relationship was clouded by the fact they were both at the mental institution but did not recognize each on the island is a troubling mystery. Did Jin overcome his fear of poverty to find a materially rewarding relationship with Sun? In life, they never came so close as they did in death. Did Sayid ever overcome his accountability worries? He did not have to because he was never punished for his actions.

Which brings up another point. The fantasy ending that the main characters "got" want they truly wanted from the island "time" did not change, redeem or improve any of the main characters personality flaws. There was no great revelation that changed their hearts or minds. At best, they survived their fears at a basic level but at most times those fears were repressed by the physical danger present in their daily island time.

REBOOT: EPISODES 97-100

POSTING NOTE: Due to work changes, I may not be able to post updates on Tuesdays after Monday night marathon G4 reruns, but updates will occur later in the week.

LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 97-100 (Days ????- - ????)

Ben awakens to find Flocke sitting over him. Ben exhibits surprise that Locke is alive, but tells Locke that he expected his resurrection. He also tells Flocke that he broke the rules and has to face the consequences, which will result in being judged by the Smoke Monster. Ben then travels out to the beach, where several survivors, including Bram and Ilana, are trying to transport a crate filled with what they call necessary supplies. Ben speaks to Caesar about Locke, telling him that he doesn't believe that Locke was on the plane. Ben feigns ignorance when Caesar informs him that Locke believes that Ben killed him, saying that Locke is insane and dangerous. To atone for sins of the past, Ben must attempt to summon the Smoke Monster in order to be judged

A reluctant Miles is forced to work with Hurley when he's asked to deliver an important package to a top DHARMA official. Meanwhile, suspicions about a possible security breach intensify after young Ben is taken from the infirmary.

Kate and Sawyer return from delivering boy Ben to Alpert, and Sawyer contacts Miles to have erase the surveillance tape. Kate is worried that Sawyer could get in trouble, but he's confident he can smooth things over. Miles pops out the tape, but before he can erase it, Horace arrives with a package, asking him where is LaFleur. Miles tells him that he's tried to contact LaFleur on the radio, but he's out of contact. Horace gives Miles the package to bring to Radzinsky and asks him to get a package in return, "no questions asked". Horace tells Miles that he's letting him in the circle of trust.
Miles drives to the location Horace specified, and delivers the package, which turns out to be a body bag. Radzinsky puts a body in it, and tells him to transport it back to Horace. Miles, curious as to why a person who apparently fell in a ditch had a head wound, unzips the body bag and uses his speaking to the dead ability to find out what really happened. He learns that the dead man, Alvarez, had a filling which ripped from his mouth and exited through his brain.

Horace, after a consultation with Chang, tells Miles to bring the body to the Orchid so it can be determined if the accident was caused by the unique electromagnetism. Miles walks back to his van to complete the assignment, but finds Hurley loading coolers filled with sandwiches for the Orchid construction team into the vehicle. After he insists they carpool, they set off, only to have Hurley notice an unpleasant odor of Miles “package.”  Miles jokes that it is probably Hurley's special garlic mayonnaise, but Hurley is concerned that his food might be contaminated. Hurley investigates and discovers the body. Confronted, Miles tells him what really happened to the body. To Miles' bewilderment, Hurley completely accepts his story, noting he also talks with the dead, and sometimes plays chess with dead people. Miles says that isn't how it works, at which point Hurley responds that Miles admitted to his ability. Miles explains that he is able to get a "feeling" about who the deceased was and whatever they knew before they died.

The time of reckoning has begun when Daniel Faraday comes clean regarding what he knows about the Island. He demands to be taken to Jack's house. Miles complies. Once at Jack's house, Daniel frantically questions him on how he returned to the Island. Jack mentions a plane, and says that Daniel's mother,  Eloise,  persuaded him to get on the plane. Daniel asks Jack if Eloise spoke about destiny, to which Jack says yes. Daniel tells Jack that his mother was wrong, and that Jack does not belong there; whether meaning on the Island at all, or in the DHARMA.

Daniel explains that it is necessary to begin evacuating the Island, as the EM energy unleashed by DHARMA construction work has caused injuries. When Chang responds skeptically and insists that the energy has been contained, they board the Orchid elevator to the surface and Daniel explains that in six hours, a catastrophic accident will occur at the Swan site. Chang demands to know why Daniel considers himself qualified to make such a prediction, and Daniel reveals that he has arrived "from the future."

Daniel later explains to Jack and Kate  that the installation they know as The Hatch will be built as a precautionary measure to contain this energy and prevent future incidents. Over the next 20 years, he explains, it will be necessary for DHARMA to keep this energy at bay by pressing a button;  ultimately, Desmond’s  failure to do so will cause Flight 815 to crash on the island. Daniel tells Jack and Kate that his studies of relativistic physics have revealed the relationship between the "constants” in this equation and the "variables." The variables, he says, are people—specifically, their choices and free will may allow them to change their destiny. Daniel then reveals his intention to set things right by detonating a hydrogen bomb in an attempt to negate the catastrophic energy release, thereby preventing the events that led to Oceanic 815's crash.

Flocke further solidifies his stance as leader of The Others, though Alpert and Ben are worried about his true intentions.

 Jack and Kate discuss their options while hiding near the Others camp. Suddenly, a gunshot is heard, and they watch  Daniel collapse to the ground. As they are about to run away, two men charge them on galloping horses. One of them knocks out Jack with his rifle's butt, and the other one aims a rifle at Kate.

In the Hostiles camp, Eloise thumbs through the pages of Daniel's journal and looks at Daniel's corpse on the ground in front of her. She reaches the first page, and is confused by the dedication in it, which she appears to recognize as her own handwriting. Widmore and a man arrive, holding Jack and Kate captive. Alpert explains the situation to Widmore. Eloise asks Jack and Kate if they've come with Daniel, to which Jack replies "Yes." She orders that they be taken to her tent. Widmore inquires why DHARMA would declare war on them, but Eloise tells him that the three intruders are not DHARMA people.

In the tent, Jack reveals to Kate that he means to reset their lives, having the plane never crash and avoiding all the misery that's happened since.

Kate adamantly states that it was not all misery, but does not tell Jack her true feelings. He responds that enough of it was. After entering the tent, Eloise assures Jack and Kate that she will believe whatever they say because she has just killed a man who claims to be her future son, the same man who told her to bury the bomb 23 years earlier before disappearing. Jack tells Ellie that by using the bomb, they can alter the future, and undo what Ellie did to her future son.

Science:

Variables. Defined:

adjective
1 not consistent or having a fixed pattern; liable to change: the quality of hospital food is highly variable | awards can be for variable amounts.
• (of a wind) tending to change direction.
• Mathematics (of a quantity) able to assume different numerical values.
• Botany & Zoology (of a species) liable to deviate from the typical color or form, or to occur in different colors or forms.

2 able to be changed or adapted: the drill has variable speed.
• (of a gear) designed to give varying ratios or speeds.
noun
an element, feature, or factor that is liable to vary or change: there are too many variables involved to make any meaningful predictions.
• Mathematics a quantity that during a calculation is assumed to vary or be capable of varying in value.
• Computing a data item that may take on more than one value during the runtime of a program.
• Astronomy short for variable star.
• (variables) the region of light, variable winds to the north of the northeast trade winds or (in the southern hemisphere) between the southeast trade winds and the westerlies.

Daniel’s equation of people’s choices changing future events.

Daniel states his studies of relativistic physics have revealed the relationship between the "constants” in this equation and the "variables." The variables, he says, are people—specifically, their choices and free will may allow them to change their destiny. However, his statements do not correspond to Einstein’s theories of relativity.

Daniel stated that time is like a string: you can go back and forth along it, but you cannot change the events. What has happened, happened. As Eloise told Desmond in the clock shop, the universe “course corrects” to make sure events (such as death) occur so the time line remains the same (automatic paradox correction).

Daniel’s time equation could be represented like this:
Space Time (Events) = Past + Present - Future

Past = People + Experiences (Memories)
Present = People + Knowledge (of the Past)
Future = People + Application (of Knowledge)

So the equation can be rewritten as:

Space Time (Events) = (People + Memories) + (People + Knowledge) - (People + Application of Knowledge).

If People are the same (constant value 1):

Space Time Events = Memories + Knowledge - Action (Application of Knowledge).

If People are not the same (variables x,y z):

Space Time Events = XMemories + YKnowledge - ZAction

If the People is actually a Person represented by Daniel himself (and his friends):

If you change X’s memories to create Y’s knowledge to re-direct Z’s future action,
that is what Daniel thinks what will happen if he counteracts the Swan drilling incident
by destroying the island with the hydrogen bomb.

Improbabilities:

Young Ellie understanding that she has killed her future son, so she will help Jack and Kate (non-scientists) to correct the future.

The death of Daniel in 1977 does not erase his existence in 2007, thus creating a paradox.

Clues:

Dead is Dead: Ben is physically accosted by Dead Alex in the Temple. Only the dead can manhandle other dead beings.

Dead is Really Dead: Ben tells Sun that “dead is dead” on the island, and he had seen the island heal, but never bring back the dead like Locke.

“Hello, Ben. Welcome back to the land of the living.” It is really a taunt from Flocke to Ben, that the island is not the land of the living, since Locke is dead.

Some Like It Hoth.  A take off on movie title, Some LIke It Hot, 1959 comedy starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. In the movie, the two main characters must disguise themselves as members of an all-girl band to avoid retribution after witnessing a mob assassination. but Hoth may be represented of the Egyptian god, Thoth. Or, in Hurley’s mind, the Rebel Alliance base on a distant uninhabited planet which would be destroyed by Darth Vader’s forces. If all of this is in Hurley’s mind, as a Star Wars fan, this would be another clue to the big premise.

Follow the Leader. A child’s game, but in that episode the game is deadly, as Flocke tells Ben the reason he is taking everyone to see Jacob - - - is to kill him.

Sawyer tells Kate when he helps her get young Ben to the Hostiles, “I did it for her (Juliet).” He states that he has “grown up a lot” in the three years in the time shift. Which parallels modern day progression: gamer children at some point need to grow up - - - stop the game worlds and go on to real life.


Discussion:

“ Memory presents to us not what we choose but what it pleases. ”
— Michel de Montaigne

“ Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past. ”
— George Orwell

We come to the intersection of conflicting explanations of the Lost mythology. We have the collision of the time travel arc and the 815 Swan incident crash causation events.

The Miles Time Travel Explanation:

MILES: What the hell are you doing, Tubby?
HURLEY: Checking to see if I'm disappearing.
MILES: What?
HURLEY: "Back to the Future", man. We came back in time to the island and changed stuff. So if little Ben dies, he'll never grow up to be big Ben, who's the one who made us come back here in the first place. Which means we can't be here. And therefore, dude? We don't exist.
MILES: You're an idiot. [Takes a seat at the table]
HURLEY: Am I?
MILES: Yeah. It doesn't work like that. You can't change anything. Your maniac Iraqi buddy shot Linus. That is what always happened. It's just...we never experienced how it all turns out.
[Hurley looks at Jack, confused.]
HURLEY: This is really confusing.
MILES: Yeah, well, get used to it. But the good news is that Linus didn't die, so that means the kid can't either. He'll be fine.
KATE: Didn't look like he was gonna be fine. What if you're wrong?
MILES: Well, if I'm wrong, then I guess we all stop existing, and none of it matters anyway then, does it? ****

KATE: He's just a boy, Jack. You can't just let him die.
JACK: You heard Miles. We can't change what's already happened. This has nothing to do with me.
KATE: Unless you're the one who's supposed to save him.
JACK: 30 years from now, that boy's gonna be a man...that locks me in a cage because he needs surgery. And then you're gonna come in and you're gonna beg me to operate on him because he's threatening to murder Sawyer. I've already done this once. [scoffs] I've already saved Benjamin Linus, and I did it for you, Kate. I don't need to do it again. [Goes back to the food.]
KATE: This is our fault. We brought Sayid back. We caused this.
JACK: You know, when we were here before, I spent all of my time trying to fix things. But...did you ever think that maybe the island just wants to fix things itself? And maybe I was just...getting' in the way? ***

HURLEY: Let me get this straight.
[Miles is pacing.]
HURLEY: All this already happened.
MILES: Yes.
HURLEY: So this conversation we're having right now...we already had it.
MILES: [Claps his hands] Yes!
HURLEY: Then what am I gonna say next?
MILES: I don't know. [Shakes his head.]
HURLEY: Ha! Then your theory is wrong!
MILES: For the thousandth time, you dingbat, the conversation already happened, but not for you and me. For you and me, it's happening right now.
HURLEY: Okay, answer me this. If all this already happened to me, then...why don't I remember any of it?
MILES: Because once Ben turned that wheel, time isn't a straight line for us anymore. Our experiences in the past and the future occurred before these experiences right now.
[Hurley's face tightens in confusion as he thinks, Miles stares at him.]
HURLEY: Say that again.
MILES: [Pauses in exasperation and pulls out his gun and holds it out for Hurley to take.] Shoot me. Please. Please!
HURLEY: Aha! I can't shoot you. Because if you die in 1977, then you'll never come back to the island on the freighter 30 years from now.
MILES: I can die because I've already come to the island on the freighter. Any of us can die because this is our present.
HURLEY: But you said Ben couldn't die because he still has to grow up and become the leader of the Others.
MILES: Because this is his past.
HURLEY: But when we first captured Ben, and Sayid, like, tortured him, then why wouldn't he remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid?
[Miles blinks and looks around. Hurley raises his eyebrow.]
MILES: Huh. I hadn't thought of that.
HURLEY: Huh. [Crossing his arms.]

Faraday’s Time Travel Explanation:

FARADAY: How did you get back to the Island?
JACK: Where have you been?
FARADAY: I was--I was just at DHARMA headquarters in Ann Arbor. I was doing some research. What's more important right now... how did you get back here to 1977?
JACK: [Sighs] What's going on?
MILES: Don't look at me. I just carried his luggage.
FARADAY: Jack, how?
JACK: Uh... we were on a plane, and then--
FARADAY: Who told you to get on a plane?
JACK: As a matter of fact, Dan, it was your mother.
FARADAY: [Sighs] And how did she convince you, Jack? Did she tell you it was your destiny?
JACK: Yeah. That's exactly what she said.
FARADAY: Well, I got some bad news for you, Jack. You don't belong here at all. She was wrong. *****

FARADAY: It's contained down here. But in about six hours, the same thing is gonna happen at the site for the Swan station, only the energy there is about 30,000 times more powerful, sir. And the accident... it's gonna be catastrophic.
DR. CHANG: That is utterly absurd. What could possibly qualify you to make that kind of prediction? Hmm?
FARADAY: I'm from the future. ****

FARADAY: It's this plane crash. I don't know why it's bothering me so much. [Whispers] it's just so sad. They're dead.
WIDMORE: Daniel, what if I told you... they're not dead? What if I told you the plane was a fake? An elaborate... [scoffs] expensive fake.
FARADAY: [Sighs] How would you know that?
WIDMORE: Because I put it there.
FARADAY: Well... why would you tell me that?
WIDMORE: Because come tomorrow, you won't remember I did. Daniel, the real Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on an island--a special island with unique scientific properties. I want to send you to the Island. It will further your research, show you things you'd never dream of. But more importantly, it will heal you, Daniel--your mind, your memory.
FARADAY: H--heal me? W--why are you doing all this for me?
WIDMORE: Because you're a man of tremendous gifts, and it would be a shame to see them go to waste.
FARADAY: [Chuckles] You sound like my mother.
WIDMORE: [Chuckles] That's because we're old friends. ****

JACK: You need a gun to go talk to your mother, Dan?
FARADAY: You don't know my mother, Jack.
[Drops bag.]
JACK: You ready to tell me why she was wrong? Why we don't belong here?
[Kate moves closer.]
FARADAY: In about four hours, the DHARMA folks at the swan work site--they're gonna--gonna drill into the ground and accidentally tap into a massive pocket of energy. The result of the release of this energy would be catastrophic. So in order to contain it, they're gonna have to cement the entire area in, like Chernobyl. And this containment--the place they built over it--I believe you called it "the Hatch." The Swan hatch? Because of this one accident, these people are gonna spend the next 20 years keeping that energy at bay... by pressing a button... a button that your friend Desmond will one day fail to push, and that will cause your plane--Oceanic 815--to crash on this Island. And because your plane crashed, a freighter will be sent to this Island--a freighter I was on and Charlotte was on and so forth. This entire chain of events--it's gonna start happening this afternoon. But... we can change that. I studied relativistic physics my entire life. One thing emerged over and over--can't change the past. Can't do it. Whatever happened, happened. All right? But then I finally realized... I had been spending so much time focused on the constants, I forgot about the variables. Do you know what the variables in these equations are, Jack?
JACK: [Chuckles] No.
FARADAY: Us. We're the variables. People. We think. We reason. We make choices. We have free will. We can change our destiny. I think I can negate that energy under the Swan. I think I can destroy it. If I can, then that hatch will never be built, and your plane... your plane will land, just like it's supposed to, in Los Angeles.
KATE: And just how exactly do you plan on destroying this energy?
FARADAY: I'm gonna detonate a hydrogen bomb.

Eloise’s Time Travel Solution:

MS. HAWKING: Your daughter's in there. Why don't you go in and say hello?
WIDMORE: Unfortunately, Eloise, my relationship with Penelope is one of the things I had to sacrifice.
MS. HAWKING: Sacrifice? Don't you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles. I had to send my son back to the Island, knowing full well that--
WIDMORE: He was my son, too, Eloise.
[Eloise slaps Widmore. She gets in the taxi and it leaves.]

FARADAY: It doesn't matter. I need you to take me to Eloise.
RICHARD: I--I already told you she's not here. Let's just take it easy.
FARADAY: Where's the bomb, Richard? The hydrogen bomb that I told you people to bury--where is it?
RICHARD: Listen to me. Lower your gun, and we'll talk. Okay? Nobody has to get hurt here. Just put the gun down.
FARADAY: I'm gonna give you three seconds. One...
RICHARD: Don't do this.
FARADAY: Two...
[A rifle reports. Daniel looks down to see blood oozing from his midsection. He grunts faintly and then slumps to the ground with a thud. Behind him, a blonde woman holds a smoking rifle aimed at him.]
RICHARD: Why did you do that?
ELOISE: He had a gun on you.
RICHARD: He wasn't gonna shoot me, Eloise.
FARADAY: Eloise. [Gasping] You knew. You always knew. [Panting] You knew this was gonna happen. You sent me here anyway.
ELOISE: Who are you?
FARADAY: I... I'm your son. [Gasps]
[Eloise stares at him with shock. Daniel's eyes go still.]

We have the full revelation that Eloise Hawking is the woman behind the curtain.

She is the mastermind behind getting the 815ers “back” to the Island. She is the person who pushed her son, Daniel, into the complex physics of time travel. She convinced Widmore, her ex-husband, to fund the research and expedition back to the Island. She cajoled people to get back to the island to “save the world” or to complete their destiny. Was Jack’s destiny to replace her insane son’s plan to blow up the Swan station before the Incident (which, in theory would have killed Eloise before giving birth to him) in order to re-boot the time line of events where Daniel does not die by Eloise’s hand in 1977? It seems quite convoluted and complex.

Daniel’s Rube Goldberg trap explanation of how is is going to change the future by blowing up the past with members of the future at the event in the past fails to consider Ben’s terse statement “dead is dead” on the island. Daniel believes he can “fix things” and save Charlotte by stopping the Swan incident (massive EM release which would later be contained by the Hatch) by blowing up the pocket of energy with a hydrogen bomb. A bomb that would destroy the island and kill everyone on it - - - including himself, his mother and all the people who should have been on Flight 815. If the characters were truly “time traveling” in space time, they would only have one “life.”  If they are killed in 1977, would they be erased from the future itself? Or is this plan really the ultimate “course correction” of the paradox of time travelers meeting their parents and changing events that had already happened?

The real method to stop the release of energy that downed Flight 815 is found in the fact that Eloise pushed Desmond to the Island, “to save (her) world” meaning that she found a patsy in Desmond to push the button. If he had done his job, Flight 815 would have never crashed; the freighter would have never been launched to the Island; Daniel would have never been time shifted by the FDW, and she would have never killed him in 1977.

So which came first? Eloise’s plan or Daniel’s plan?

And that is the incompatible issue of the series shock twist ending to Season 5.

There is another main story engine that begins.

In this series arc, we start to get the full immersion into Egyptian mythology.

The underground Temple wall where Smokey, Cerebrus, the Monster lives under the mural to Anubis, the Egyptian god of the underworld.

The reference to “Hoth” in a title could be a wink toward the Egyptian underworld figure, Thoth. Thoth’s roles in Egyptian mythology were many. Thoth served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other. This seems to be Jacob’s role on the island, as the various factions claim the “good” label against their opponents.  He also served as scribe of the gods, credited with the invention of writing and alphabets (i.e. hieroglyphs) themselves. These symbols will be found throughout the island over the various ages including modern Dharma equipment.  In the Egyptian underworld,  he is the the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales weighing the deceased's heart against the feather, representing the principle of Ma'at, was exactly even, so a soul could progress in the after life to be reborn.

The ancient Egyptians regarded Thoth as One, self-begotten, and self-produced. He was the master of both physical and  moral law.   He is credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth, and everything in them. This begins to sound also like Daniel’s role in trying to explain the island. Thoth was the male figure, while  his feminine counterpart, Ma'at was the force which maintained the Universe. This may refer to Eloise, as she tries to maintain a balance to avoid the end of the world.  Thoth is said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies. Without his words, the Egyptians believed, the gods would not exist. His power was unlimited in the Underworld and rivaled that of Ra and Osiris.

The Egyptians credited Thoth as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic, in essence, he was the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, human and divine. If Thoth is the master of both physical and moral law, is that not a good explanation for Jacob?


The biggest reveal in this arc was The Mural. During Ben's "judgment" with the smoke monster, we find out where Smokey lives: under the Temple, under a metal grate, under a mural of depicting the smoke monster and Anubis.

Anubis is the Greek name for the ancient jackal-headed god of the dead in Egyptian mythology whose hieroglyphic version is more accurately spelled Anpu (also Anupu, Anbu, Wip, Ienpw, Inepu, Yinepu, Inpu, or Inpw). He is also known as Sekhem Em Pet. Prayers to Anubis have been found carved on the most ancient tombs in Egypt; indeed, the Unas text (line 70) associates him with the Eye of Horus. He serves as both a guide to the recently departed and as the patron of embalmers and mummification, though his primary role is as the guardian and judge of the dead.


In Ben's judgment scenes, we do confirm certain aspects of the smoke monster legend. First, we hear a flush of water when Ben summons the creature from his barrack secret room. However, the monster does not appear so Flocke says he will take Ben to it. Second, at the Temple wall, Ben remembers the place where he was taken as a boy to heal (however, Alpert said to Kate that Ben would not remember the healing, that he would become one of them (living dead?). Third, Flocke conveniently does not follow Ben into the lower chamber. Fourth, we hear a mechanical clicking noise as the smoke monster appears from the ground. Fourth, we see a swirl of images and electric flashes surrounding Ben (his life flashes before his eyes). Fifth, when the smoke monster retreats, it is only then that Dead Alex takes her form and physically confronts Ben, slamming him up to a hieroglyph pillar. She tells him that he is to follow all the directions of Flocke without question. The she disappears. Then Flocke appears above Ben with a rope for his rescue. Ben said "it let me live." But in reality, it was Flocke who let him live - - - for he is the manifestation of the smoke monster. Flocke and the smoke monster never appear in the same room at the same time or in split forms.


For if Jacob represents Thoth, the master of both physical and moral law, could he not have created his dead brother in any form he chose, including Smokey?  And if that is the case, is the Island, as its own intellectual character, really symbolic representation of Anubis?

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

Dead Locke taking control of the Others, including Ben.

Ben knows Locke is dead, so why would he follow Flocke? Mind control?

Recognition by some characters that the Island is not “right:”

SUN: What you're saying, it's... impossible.
LOCKE: But here I am. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I'm sure there's a very good reason for it.
LAPIDUS: As long as the dead guy says there's a reason, well, then I guess everything's gonna be just peachy. And forget about the fact that the rest of your people are supposedly 30 years ago... now the only ones who are here to help us are a murderer and a guy who can't seem to remember how the hell he got out of a coffin. Sun, please, let's just go back to the plane, see if I can fix the radio, and maybe we can get some help.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 97:
BEN: It let me live.

EP 98:

FARADAY: Hey, Miles. Long time no see.

EP 99:
FARADAY: I... I'm your son. [Gasps]
[Eloise stares at him with shock. Daniel's eyes go still.]

EP 100:

LOCKE: So I can kill him.
[Ben, stunned, stops in his tracks and falls behind as the rest of the column passes him by.]

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

Once upon a time in America (it was just after World War II), mainstream psychology came in two and only two forms. There was behaviorism and there was psychoanalysis, and no one with any other intellectual orientation need apply. The theorists on campuses were behaviorists; the therapists in offices were psychoanalysts.

Then came the revolution led by the humanistic psychologists, beginning in the 1950s and rapidly gaining strength through the 1960s and early '70s. It brought encounter groups, regional "growth centers" like Northern California's notorious "clothing optional" Esalen Institute, experimentation with LSD and other psychedelic drugs, and "client-centered therapy." Nothing was ever the same again.

Cultural historian Jessica Grogan writes in Encountering America: Humanistic Psychology, Sixties Culture, and the Shaping of the Modern Self that humanistic psychology tried to connect to the civil rights movement.  A few humanistic psychologists tried to adapt the encounter group and make it a tool to promote greater racial harmony, but nothing came of their efforts.

Grogan writes, there were "fissures built into the movement," for its members held "many disparate views of health, human nature, motivation, and behavior." Humanistic psychology, she writes, was more "a broadly encompassing orientation" than "any one specific theory." She notes that "within psychology and psychotherapy," the rebellious spirit of the '60s "didn't manifest as a [new] consensus in which all scholars and practitioners agreed they had found a universal theory or methodological approach that would reign supreme. Instead, it manifested as a dissolution of consensus," so that "a plethora of diverse psychological theories, services, and techniques were now emerging."

The diverse theories were all devoted to the proposition that human beings were individuals, not interchangeable machines whose behavior could be predicted experimentally and whose "mental woes," as Vladimir Nabokov famously put it, could "be cured by a daily application of old Greek myths to their private parts." They all believed that the human individual came "hard wired," as it were, for personal growth, and that the purpose of therapy was to create and sustain an environment in which the obstacles so commonly thrown up by social institutions to personal growth, self-actualization, and realization of one's potential were deactivated, so that the client could, in effect "cure" him- or herself. They all believed that psychological health meant something more than merely being free from mental illness, that it comprised a set of specifiable (and to some extent measurable) personal qualities such as self-esteem, self-confidence, and openness to experience.

Grogan deplores the "often destructive permissiveness" that she says became virtually "the rule" at "growth centers" during the late 1960s. She complains bitterly about the way in which the counterculture of the period "distrust[ed] all authority" and "expressed a blind allegiance to absolute freedom that rested on the assumption that human nature was fundamentally good." She complains that "the leaders of humanistic psychology seemed incapable of adequately considering anything beyond the distinct individual" and seemed to envision an American society remade one individual at a time.

Worse yet, the encounter groups these psychologists led "seemed to unwittingly encourage the development of negative characteristics like self-focus [and] hedonism." It wasn't long, according to Grogan, before the humanistic psychology movement as a whole developed "a reputation for being overly individualistic and encouraging of narcissism."

One result of that, needless to say, was that individuals began to act in ways intended to benefit themselves—for example, by starting businesses and attempting to make a profit. Grogan doesn't really approve of profit. She writes of "the potential for businesses to misuse humanistic principles in the ruthless pursuit of profit" and notes that the humanistic psychology movement "did little, if anything, to eradicate the baser profit motives of corporate leaders" during the 1960s and '70s, though it did come to exercise considerable influence on management theory at that time.

Grogan believes “the ideas and practices of humanistic psychology have dispersed so widely and thoroughly they've become virtually undetectable—they're the air we breathe." “If we measure the extent to which the leading concepts of humanistic psychology have pervaded our culture...we might deem the movement a whopping success. The language of humanistic psychology is everywhere: humanistic ideas of self, growth, health, individual potential, and relation are now woven into the very fabric of our thoughts and perceptions. The fundamentals of 'humanistic' communication, encounter, and expression populate our interactions with our spouses, our employees and bosses, our friends and children. They ring from the lips of our talk show hosts, and they populate our self-help shelves."

Whatever we would call it today (“pop psychology”), the characters in the LOST universe are clearly narcissistic individuals whose outlook and cultural morality is fused from the events of the late 1960s and 1970s. The most focused characters are hell bent on increasing their self-importance (which feeds their inadequate feelings on their own self-worth) to a destructive level of psychosis behaviors. By putting the characters under a “humanistic” approach puts their motivations in synch with their eventual actions. LOST appears to be one large experiment in humanistic psychology.